Long arm hair is slowly longer arm hair is winding into prolonged arm hair is dreaming into sticky wet arm hair is only thinking of itself on the left arm soaped arm hair waiting to be rinsed so that it can go back to slightly tangled arm hair, having been forgotten beneath the woolens even by the judgmental eyes of mothers is the growing forestry of arm hair only imagining the future when a wax strip will uproot it into the dustbin or a razor will will it into the drain, till the longing of the arm hair makes it sentient into wanting to be seen by a stranger whose long stare may fabulate it into a savannah for cows to graze at.

Long pubic hair is longish pubic hair is longer pubic hair till the husband says, “I will trim those for you,” doesn’t say “I am tired of those on you,” because he knows better than long pubic hair is the longing to lick without indigestion, so he stands on the bedside while pubic hair wires gape, the scissor gently trims, long pubic hair trembling to the cold air is not a gripping story for the husband, razor takes away a bunch of narrative wires leaving deep inside the folds a long day of growing intimacy, tangled in the oblong gap between legs is the forest for one man to walk in till he can’t find himself.

Long armpit hair is crusted at the end with soap, what desirable lushness for the mousy parlour girl who wants to see it succumb to golden hot wax, to look at the black mat of it over the dirty cream of the strip is the hairy satisfaction she lives for, shows the strip to the bearer of the armpit expecting similar enthusiasm if not triumph, the stretched thin flesh of armpit, tenderness subdued to repeated pressure from palms, singed, betrayed that the once lush landscape is now naked folds, tongues might come for it, sweat will trickle down easy, beating close to the heart will be the resilient hair follicles till they sprout.

SHIVANI MUTNEJA is a writer from Delhi. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems and prose have appeared in Nether Quarterly, Jellyfish Review, Two Serious Ladies, and decomp Journal among others. She is also the Associate Fiction Editor at The Bombay Literary Magazine.